Closer Look:

The board is aimed at the more budget minded users who still want a little extra power user performance. This means it needs to support some of the latest components even though it has been scaled back just a bit. The main differences are in the motherboard's 650-SLI chipset. The 650 chipset is very similar to the 680 except where overclocking and more storage capabilities are concerned. The main features that most users will find most beneficial are the Intel processors supported by the board. Any older and newer socket LGA 775 Intel processor will work on the motherboard, from a single core up to quad cores, as well as 1333 FSB processors. If you can't afford to upgrade every option at once, then this will allow you a little more use out of your current processor.

Front

Back

Open

As you can see, the motherboard is built on a very dark purple PCB with lighter purple trace pathways all around the keyboard. It's hard to notice the dark purple unless there is light directly reflected off the motherboard and then it looks cool. Anything but green is a bonus these days and it doesn't hurt to use a bit nicer looking, more effective cooling sinks whether green or not. The onboard chipset fan is quite small and a little on the weak looking side. Heat sinks like these aren't great performing coolers of any sort and are often loud enough to be heard. The board is 'accented' by white PCI and PCI-X slots, orange and blue PCI-E slots, as well as purple and orange memory sockets. The color scheme doesn't quite throw out the best looking contrast, but again, isn't just a bland white socket on green PCB. A little color theme never hurts a product.

Front

Back

The motherboard provides 4 SATA and 2 ATA ports for those needing both kinds of storage devices. As people migrate to these newer boards, you still find many use the soon to be depleted IDE drives. Even the latest ROM drives now come with a SATA connection to make the upgrades go more smoothly. And if you don't know by now, in most instances, SATA devices do allow for greater data transfer. A single SATA drive can be out performed by two IDE drives in RAID, but not by any great margin. The point is, if you are upgrading to a board this up to date, you might as well keep with the performance gains and order a new SATA drive or two. Otherwise, the board does allow for greater upgrade flexibility.

Bottom

Top

There are 2 PCI-Express slots for using two NVidia based graphics cards set up in SLI Mode. These aren't full speed x16 PCI-Express, but are actually x8 + x8 capable. The performance differences between x16 and x8 aren't often completely noticeable. As a matter of fact, current performance is typically visible only in benchmarks and rarely noticed in regular game use and then it's most seen at the higher resolutions. Driver improvements should continue to raise x16 performance, but if you aren't going to notice the current 5 to 10 frames per second gains, then x8 + x8 will more than satisfy your game play.

4 SATA, 2 ATA, 2 USB

Solid State CPU Capacitors

Looking at the back of the NF650SLIT-A, you can see there is also some multi-media flexibility. There is a coaxial and optical port for your Digital SPDIF needs. If your previous upgrade utilized the coaxial approach, then you are covered, For those who like the often better Optical feature, such as myself, it's nice to have the option. Then there is the integrated Realtek 7.1 High Definition Audio processor to power and perform all the audio functions. The rear ports will allow you up to 8 audio channels. That means, you get 7 regular channels, plus 1 subwoofer channel to provide a more realistic audio experience.

7.1 (8) Channel HD Audio

Serial, SPDIF, USB, Audio Ports

As far as the motherboard bundle goes, it's too basic. To be quite honest, the bundle is lacking in that you get only 1 SATA cable, 1 ATA cable, PCI Bracket, Driver CD, and SLI bridge. The 650-SLI boards I have handled have thus far at least come with 2 or more SATA cables. I'm a consumer at heart as well and I believe that there should be at least half the number of cables as there are SATA ports on the motherboard. So, if the motherboard comes with 6 SATA ports, there should at least be 3 SATA cables. And whatever happened to rounded ATA cables? There is such a thing as, too budget oriented. The last thing you want to do is skimp on the cheap items.

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